Demonetisation Helped the Cause of 'Indian Culture': RSS-aligned Outfit

New Delhi: Demonetisation is bringing back “Indian culture” by cutting down on “western-style consumer extravaganza”, and going cashless will help resume “the old practice of spending only on things we need”, leader of an influential RSS-aligned organisation told News18.

A Jayakumar, general secretary of Vijnana Bharati, an organisation promoting swadeshi science, also said the migration to digital payments will help the case of cultivating family values.

“Digital payments or cashless transactions will make it easy for parents to look into their kids’ monetary transactions. This will lead to a transparent society. All expenditures of our children will be on record, there will be equilibrium. This is not to sound autocratic but to impress faith in family values, parents will know where the children are spending money,” he said.

Vijnana Bharati is often referred to as an RSS-affiliated organization but Jayakumar told News18 it would be incorrect to say so. “You can take it on record that we are not an RSS-affiliated organisation,” he said.

Speaking on the sidelines of the India International Science Festival, inaugurated by minister of science and technology Dr Harsh Vardhan, Jayakumar said that demonetisation is a great step in the long run in more than one way.

“Cashless transactions or demonetisation is bringing Indian culture back to its people – extravagance was not in our culture, this consumerism is a western import and by going cashless we will resume our old practice of spending on things we need, seek inspiration from Chanakya,” he said.

Jayakumar also said that to reap the benefits of the new policy measure, it was necessary to marry technology with regional languages. He will write to Prime Minister Narendra Modi regarding the need for technology supported by regional languages.

“Cashless transactions can be successful only if the technology reaches consumers in their regional language. And this is exactly what we propagate. So in the long run cashless transaction is going to give a big boost to Indianness or Swadeshi,” he said.

“Almost 30% of Indians are illiterates, but there are over a crore mobile phones. As per Census 2011, only 12% of the Indian population speaks English. So language should not become a reason for cashless transaction to become unsuccessful,” he said.